Through the Looking Glass
by Thanatos34
Summary: Shepard discovers something on Alchera she would rather have never known.
1. Chapter 1

_~Author's Note~ Just a little idea that popped into my head in the wee hours of the morning. Not something that I've seen before. A little darker than my other fics._

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><p>Shepard nearly slipped on the ice for the fourth time since exiting the shuttle, and again mentally berated herself for not bringing along a crewmember.<p>

What an ignoble end for the great Commander Shepard. Yes, she defeated Sovereign and his army of Geth, but then she slipped on an ice flow and broke her neck. May she rest in peace. The idiot.

It certainly wasn't the best time for her to take a break from her mission and head out to Alchera, just to collect a few dog-tags. Not to mention, she really didn't appreciate Hackett deciding she was the best person for the job. What kind of messed-up superior sends a soldier back to the spot where she _died_ to do a job that anyone with a pair of eyes could handle? Chambers knew it, she had tried to get Shepard to let Garrus or Jacob go down to the planet's surface, but Shepard had had no choice after what Garrus had done.

In Hackett's defense, of course, he didn't really have a precedent for a soldier dying and then suddenly coming back two years later. Still, you don't need a psych degree to know that kind of experience is going to change a gal. Not that she was going to tell the psychologist Cerberus had assigned any of that. She didn't trust the Illusive Man as far as she could throw him. She could probably throw him pretty far with her biotics, but that wasn't the point. She just knew Kelly Chambers was reporting everything back to her leader, and she didn't want it getting back to the Illusive Man that she was weak, or human. He had violated her enough already by just rebuilding her. Her mind and her feelings were her own, damn it. She didn't need to be psycho-analyzed by Cerberus.

What really pissed her off though, was Garrus. She and Garrus had a camaraderie from the old days, being as they were the only two people on the Normandy that had worked together to stop Saren. Okay, there were Chakwas and Joker, too, but she meant someone she could count on to watch her six. And that son-of-a-turian-whore had had the gall to ask her if she was "okay" with going down there, in front of the entire goddamned crew. No, she sure as hell wasn't okay with going down where she had *died*, but hell if she was going to stay behind while someone else went and grabbed the dog tags now! And no thank you, she didn't want your help, you big blue ass, not after that!

She was supposed to be the great Commander Shepard, and first Kaidan decides to treat her like a traitor, and now Garrus is treating her like... like she's about to break.

Maybe she is about to break. The dreams were getting worse.

But that doesn't mean she wants Kelly in her face every time she gets off the damn shuttle. Nor does she really want to deal with Thane and his passive bullshit. If he wanted her, then let the man speak up already. She could politely tell him to fuck off, she wasn't interested in drell, and they could move past it. But now, the tension was just high enough that everybody else was noticing it.

It didn't help that Kasumi kept subtly nudging her towards Thane. She was pretty sure the girl wanted her and Thane together just so she'd have Jacob all to herself. Not that Kasumi was willing to make a move either, she just liked to watch the man work out.

Jeez. It was like she was in command of a crew of teenagers.

Only Garrus treated her like a friend- like an adult, and now he was worried about her. But then, that's what friends would do for each other... right? Shepard knew she wasn't the easiest person to get along with, and she had never had any real friends, growing up on the streets of New York. She had seen some vids on the concept though. It seemed to her that friends wouldn't accuse each other of treachery, that's for damn sure. Good riddance to Kaidan. But... they did look out for each other. Damn it. Now she owed Garrus an apology for blowing up at him. That wouldn't be awkward at all.

She bent down, grabbing another dog-tag, bringing her total to 18. It was like some damn perverted easter egg hunt. She was not leaving without getting all twenty of the things, even if she was about to freeze even through her armor.

She trudged over to the Mako, checking around the vehicle to see if- yep, there was another.

Just one more to go and she could get off this frozen rock. Maybe head down to the med-lab and surprise Chakwas with that bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy she had picked up. That would definitely help warm her up.

There was a glint of something underneath one of the Normandy's cargo crates. The Normandy SR1, she reminded herself quickly- her ship was completely intact, currently orbiting Alchera, just waiting for her to finish. The crate was heavy and wouldn't budge. So she did the rational thing. She unloaded 10 rounds into it at point-blank range, the bullets chewing up the crate and shifting it just enough so that she could grab the tag.

She breathed a sigh of relief. That was 20.

She commed the Normandy, letting Joker know she was heading back to the shuttle and she'd be back on board in just a few minutes. She'd be glad to get off of this damn rock, and then she could head down to the battery and apologize to Garrus for blowing up at him. And then she could get on with the mission and put this whole mess behind her.

Damn it! Nearly slipped again.

The sun glinted off of something out on an ice-flow, catching her eye as she straightened. What was that?

One part of her said who cares? She's got the dog-tags. She should just head back to the shuttle and rendezvous with the Normandy.

But the same part that was treating this thing like a perverted easter egg hunt won out. Who knew what it might be? Maybe a new weapon that she could give to Garrus as an apology for acting like a child.

She headed over towards it, nearly slipping again. She slowed when she got within a few yards of it. It was her old helmet. Charred and blackened from atmospheric re-entry. But definitely her old N7 helmet. Funny that the visor and everything remained intact. That was one well-made piece of equipment.

Shepard stood over it, staring down, feeling oddly reluctant to pick it up.

The Collectors had stolen two years of her life, and this helmet had been sitting here for those two years.

Why had Cerberus left it here? Had they just not found it? But shouldn't it have still been on her head? A sudden chill that had nothing to do with the temperature went over her. On a childish impulse, she kicked it, some part of her hoping she'd knock it off the edge and she wouldn't have to bend down and bring it with her. It barely moved at all, just rolled over enough so that the visor was facing up. She nearly walked away right then, not wanting to know.

But still, that other side, it wouldn't let her move away, wouldn't let her leave.

She reached down and activated the visor on the helmet. For a moment, she thought the mechanism wasn't intact. Or wasn't working. But then it slid back.

She screamed, dropping the dog-tags and falling back onto the snow and ice, scrambling backwards, trying to get away from it.

Trying to get away from the blank, soulless, dead eyes staring at her from the helmet.

Commander Shepard's eyes.

Jacob had lied to her. The truth of it, the undeniable truth, was that Commander Shepard had died in the skies over Alchera.

And she was nothing more than an imposter.


	2. Chapter 2

_~Author's Note~ Thought I'd go ahead and move on with this story, since I'm apparently stuck on the others._

_Maybe it'll jar something loose. I hate writers block._

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><p>Garrus glanced up at the cockpit where Joker and Miranda were engaged in whispered conversation. Shepard still hadn't returned from her excursion on Alchera, something which he still firmly believed to be a terrible idea, and it was obvious she was overdue at this point.<p>

Joker's expression was his usual self, but Miranda... she looked extremely worried. She had pushed hard for someone else to head down onto the surface instead of Shepard, which had just had the unintended side effect of making Shepard all the more keen to go herself.

He breathed a sigh of relief as EDI announced the shuttle had returned.

He leaned back and waited for Shepard to make her way back to common area, as she'd have to pass through on her way to deliver her report to Hackett. When the shuttle's pilot showed up and headed straight for the cockpit, with no sign of Shepard, his worry returned ten-fold.

His hearing was far better than most humans, when he tried to listen as well as he could, so it was not hard to eavesdrop on the ensuing conversation.

"She refuses to come back. I've never seen her like this," the pilot was shaken.

Miranda's voice was higher-pitched than normal. "Why won't she come back? What's wrong?"

"She's just sitting there in the snow, staring at something and screaming at... well, at everyone and everything. I think she's lost it."

That was enough. Garrus didn't need to hear any more. Miranda saw him leave, of course, and came after him, catching up just as he was getting into the shuttle. "What do you think you're doing, Vakarian?"

"Helping out a friend, Lawson. You got an issue with that?"

She crossed her arms. "Yeah. I'm the second-in-command when Shepard is gone and I'm going down to get her."

His eyes flashed. "Like hell you are. Everyone on this ship knows Shepard trusts me more than you. What she needs right now is a friend, not some Cerberus lackey." He ducked into the cockpit and slammed the door in her face when she made to follow him.

"I'm coming, Shepard. Hang on."

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><p>She wasn't hard to spot. The red and black of her armor stood out like a sore thumb amidst all the white of the snow and ice on Alchera. Apparently she had given up on screaming at this point and was just sitting there, the dog-tags she had collected scattered around her.<p>

He started towards her, his boots crunching on the snow.

She whirled at the sound, both fists raised, but they fell limply to her side when she saw who it was.

He stopped, remembering what the pilot had said, keeping his distance from her. "I just want to help, Shepard."

She flinched violently at her name. "Don't... don't call me that. That's not me. I'm not her."

Apparently, she was a bit further gone than Garrus had thought. "Don't be silly, Shep-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT. I'M NOT HER!"

The force of her yell sent Garrus back a few paces. She was dangerously close to losing control of her biotics and who knew what they would do to the iceflows around them.

Maybe... maybe if he could look her in the eyes, he could calm her down. He stepped closer, kneeling down at her side, proceeding very slowly, as if approaching a wounded animal. He pressed the button on the side of her helmet that would make her visor transparent, gently, as she made no move to stop him.

"Look at me... Commander."

She did, the fight completely gone out of her. Her eyes were extremely red, as if afflicted by some disease... no wait. Garrus knew this, this was what happened when a human cried a lot. He just never expected it from Commander Shepard. But of course, forcing anyone to relive their own death could do who knows what to their emotional state. There wasn't anything like this in military history to fall back on, so Garrus had no clue how to help in this situation.

Finally, he settled for the straight-forward approach.

"Tell me what's wrong."

She looked away, staring out over the iceflow. "I asked him. I did ask him, specifically, this very question, right when I first woke up. He lied. She has to know as well."

She turned, looking back at him calmly. "I'm going to kill them, Garrus." There was no emotion, no malice in her voice. She was simply stating a fact. "I am going to kill Jacob Taylor and Miranda Lawson and every other Cerberus crewmember aboard my ship. Then I'm going to turn the ship around, head back to the Illusive Man's HQ..." she trailed off, mumbling to herself for a minute. "Have to figure out where that is. No matter. I'm going to find it and I'm going to kill him. And then every other Cerberus base I can possibly find. And then I'm going to come back here and jump off that cliff." She pointed. "That one. Yes, that should fix things. I should not exist." She nodded her head firmly. "That will fix everything."

Garrus stared at her, agape. He shook his head and pressed on, determined to get to the bottom of her sudden stroke of madness. "And why, exactly, are you going to kill Jacob and Lawson? I get that Miranda is annoying as hell-"

"She created an abomination, Garrus. The Lazarus project was her brain-child remember? She was the one responsible for-" She jerked, her eyes turning terrified. "Oh no. Oh no. What if she created more? I will have to torture her first, to be sure I am the only one. Rip into her mind. She deserves nothing less."

"The only what, Shepard?"

She screamed, her voice magnified ten-fold by her biotics. "I AM NOT HER." Then, quietly, a whisper in a broken voice. "I am not her."

Garrus had no idea what to do. He was friends with this woman, great friends, but he was not a human psychiatrist. "Let's get you back to the ship. Maybe Kelly will know what to do."

Mentioning Chambers name was a bad idea.

Shepard's head snapped up, the gleam in her eyes intensifying. "Oh yes. Kelly Chambers. That's why she was so damn interested in my dreams, in every little thing I could tell her. She was probably reporting directly to the Illusive Man, letting him know whether their little experiment was about to break. Or find out." She looked at Garrus. "I'm going to kill her too, you know. Probably first, since she will meet me at the shuttle." Her voice was still matter-of-fact. She might have been discussing his latest calibrations.

"Of course you are, Shepard." Vaguely he remembered that disagreeing with a crazy person was not a good idea, either. Placate them, agree with everything they said, even if they were completely insane.

Surely she wouldn't actually try to kill- he glanced at her again, saw the gleaming eyes, the wild expression, and made up his mind. She was completely not in control of herself and would probably want him to do this were she in her right mind.

He activated his comlink, making certain she was far enough away that she wouldn't hear him. "I've got her, Joker, but I need you to have a med team standing by. When she comes out of the shuttle, knock her out, alright?"

The pilot's voice was shocked. "You want me to do what?"

"Listen, Joker, she isn't in her right mind. Something happened down here, and we need to get to the bottom of it."

He glanced up, looking over at Shepard.

She had sat down on the ice and pulled an object into her lap, crooning over it like it was a small child. More signs of her insanity, or just human ritual he didn't understand?

"But Garrus-"

"Do it, Joker. She is unable to command and who do you think she'd want in command if she was out of it?"

There was silence for a minute then- "I'll inform Dr. Chakwas."

"Thank you, Joker. We'll be there shortly."

He cut the link, and walked over to where Shepard sat. He could hear what she was saying now.

"Don't worry. I will get them for what they did to... us. Every last one of them, Shepard. And then once its done, I will remove myself from the universe. I am an abomination, I shouldn't be here. And I won't. But first, I need to get rid of them."

Great. Now she was talking to herself in the third person. Multiple personalities, a complete psychotic break.

"Come on, She- Commander. They're sending someone down to pick us up."

She looked back at him, then back down at the object in her lap. "Yeah. I'll take care of him, too. I promise." She stood, still holding the object, and turned to face Garrus.

Oh. Maybe that's what had triggered everything. It was her old helmet.

"Here, let me carry that for you."

She hesitated, then shook her head. "She should stay here, Garrus. Where she fell."

He nodded, like he understood. And maybe, in a way, he did. Perhaps this was the only way she could cope with what happened to her, by separating what happened before she died with what happened after. He turned away, heading back towards the shuttle, still listening. She was singing. It was in a language he didn't understand, but the lines flowed smooth and restful, like what you would sing to a child in order to calm them. There was a distant crack and then another and another. He turned, curious.

Her hands were empty, and she stared out over the canyon that stretched out from the ice flow. "Good-bye, Shepard. I'll come back to join you soon." There was no sign of the helmet. She had thrown it into the canyon.

He shook his head. Humans were strange indeed sometimes. Hopefully Dr. Chakwas and Kelly could figure out what had happened to her.

She followed him into the shuttle, docile, still humming the tune she had been singing under her breath.

It was of course right when Garrus began to hope that maybe she had started to recover that she turned to him. "So, are you going to help me kill them? They need to be killed."

He groaned inwardly. "Of course, Shep-err, Commander. Whatever you say."

She leaned back, satisfied with his answer.

He sat forward, waiting, anticipating what might happen when the shuttle docked. Shepard was nothing if not a warrior and they would have to move quickly if they wanted to prevent her from actually carrying out her insane threat.

Her voice interrupted his planning. "You need something else to call me."

"What?"

"Besides just Commander. I need to come up with a name."

This was just getting crazier and crazier. "You have a name."

She brightened. "Oh? What is it?"

"It's Shep... " he trailed off at the look of absolute fury that crossed her face. "Err, I mean." Agree with the crazy people, Garrus. "You're right, you do need a name."

She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them, grinning broadly. "I've got a perfect name."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. You can call me Valkyrie."


	3. Chapter 3

_~Author's Note~ Just to clarify, I have no intention of just letting this story fall by the wayside. I already have an outline for where this story is going to go, so it's a hell of a lot easier to write. Regardless of when I figure out what to do with Warrior Angel, this story will continue, have no worries on that account. I'm not just teasing you guys._

_As will become apparent, there are multiple things different in this universe that are all consequences of what happened with Project Lazarus and extend well beyond what occurred with Shepard._

_Enjoy the chapter._

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><p><strong>*Two Years Earlier*<strong>

Miranda knew something was wrong the instant Liara stepped out of the shuttle. The look on the asari's face was one of dismay, as if the hope she had been allowing herself to feel had been crushed. She had recruited the asari in the search for Shepard's body, although she was loathe to do so, given Liara's race. Not that she had any personal animosity for the asari, but she didn't trust them to deal with Cerberus fairly, given the organization's long-term goals and reputed terrorist background. To be fair, if an alien organization existed with similar goals, she didn't think she would trust them, either.

Still, Liara had proven to be an invaluable asset over the last few weeks. It had been her who had first discovered that the Shadow Broker was after the body of the Commander, and that allowed Cerberus to prevent the unthinkable from occurring- an alien race getting their hands on Shepard's body. Not only that, she and Feron had tracked down and even managed to take the body from the Shadow Broker's agents. According to Liara's final transmission, though, she had lost Feron in the last fight.

Liara strode down the ramp towards her, her hands empty. Her body language spoke of someone who had just lost a close friend, her posture slumped, exhausted and saddened by the events of the last few weeks. She must have left the body back on the shuttle. Something else was wrong, though, something beyond the loss of Feron and the undoubted devastation Liara must be feeling both at that, and at seeing Shepard's body. That could not be a pretty sight.

"Dr. T'Soni. Well done. If my reports are accurate, you have brought us the Commander's body?"

The asari sighed, closing her eyes. "There is a problem, Ms. Lawson." She met Miranda's eyes, her own showing the strain, exhaustion, and obvious lack of sleep of the last month of searching. "It isn't going to work."

"I assure you, doctor, we have the best teams and the best medical equipment standing by. We will be able to accomplish this thing, and Commander Shepard will be brought back."

Liara shook her head. "Whatever feats of modern science you think you can achieve, you cannot do it with... her, in this state."

This was it, then. Something was wrong with the body. "What state is that, Dr. T'Soni?" Miranda was certain they could, given time, regrow skin, hair, give her cybernetic organs and limbs, even. The question had always been a simple one- had her brain managed to survive the atmospheric re-entry enough so that they could actually bring the real Shepard back? Her memory, her thoughts, would need to be taken from the old brain to any new one they created or spliced together, or all they would succeed in doing is bringing back a lifeless facsimile of the original Shepard.

Liara's voice was a whisper. "She doesn't... it's..."

Miranda was gentle. The asari had been great friends with the Commander and seeing her body after what had happened to it would be a great shock to a young person, which the doctor was, despite her age. "What is it, Liara?"

Her voice changed. Clipped, matter-of-fact, just repeating the information without giving herself time to process it. "The head is gone. She has no head, Miranda."

Lawson took a step back and cursed, loudly. That was it, then. It was over. They couldn't proceed with Project Lazarus without Shepard's brain.

Liara spoke again, tentatively. "Maybe it's still on Alchera? You could send a group over and-"

Miranda shook her head. "Wilson already took a team over there. They found nothing. The snow and winds on that god-forsaken planet make finding even the crash site difficult. Finding her head, if it even survived, would be a chance in a million."

The asari sighed, dropped her head and leaning back against the railing. "Then... it's over? All this work... for nothing?"

The Cerberus operative shook her head. They could not retrieve Shepard, but that had always just been plan A. They did have a contingency plan. "Not for nothing. Humanity needs a leader. We can still give them one."

Liara looked up at her, curious. She understood what the human was saying an instant later. "Absolutely not. You don't get to clone her. I will not allow it."

"You don't have a choice, Dr. T'Soni." She gestured behind the asari, where several members of Cerberus were just leaving the room with Shepard's body. "Thank you for your help in this matter, but your services are no longer required."

The asari stepped forward, her eyes blazing, all her sadness drowned out in the anger she felt at Miranda's betrayal. Her hands glowed blue as she brought up her biotics.

Miranda calmly stood there, pointedly glancing upwards.

Liara followed her gaze, to see the Cerberus cruiser's automatic on-board defenses online and targeted at her.

"I'm sorry you feel this way, doctor, but you have been a great help. This will be for the best. You'll see."

She glared at Miranda, and for a brief instant, the human thought she was going to attack anyway.

Then the glow in her eyes and hands faded and she again looked like a normal young asari. Her shoulders slumped and she turned, heading up the boarding ramp without saying another word. She paused at the top, and spoke.

"Some things should never be desecrated, Miranda. Even I know that much. What you are doing is wrong."

"It is necessary, Dr. T'Soni."

The asari shook her head. "I am sure many great evils in the history of the galaxy began with that reasoning." She ducked her head and vanished into the shuttle. As she did so, Miranda heard a voice in her earpiece. "Well done, Miranda. Exactly what I would have done in your position. It is a pity that we cannot bring Shepard back, but we can do the next best thing."

She smiled grimly at the Illusive Man's words. "She can never know what she is after we bring her back."

"Nor can the asari be allowed to tell anyone else," he replied pointedly.

"I know. It is a shame, though. She's just a kid."

His voice was grim. "It is necessary." The link cut off.

She looked up, watching Liara's shuttle move out from the station, heading for the mass effect relay. It was a pity, but clearly the good doctor was not going to let this one rest. Miranda was unsure if even she would be able to, were she in the asari's shoes.

She opened a channel to the central command station.

"Mr. Varus, is the doctor's ship outside the minimum range of our guns?"

The lieutenant's voice was cold. She didn't like him, his hatred for other races far outweighed his dedication to Cerberus. Still, he was one hell of a shot. "Yes, she is."

"Unfortunately, a situation has come up. We have had a disagreement on tactics and she cannot be allowed to leave. You understand, Mr. Varus?"

She could imagine his grin. "Just give me the order."

She glanced up at the viewscreen, watching as the ship moved into position for the jump.

It was necessary, she told herself. Needed. The galaxy could not know they had failed.

"Fire."

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><p><strong>*Present Day*<strong>

Valkyrie twisted in the co-pilot's chair, staring across at Garrus.

She knew him, of course, but she wasn't sure which memories were hers and which ones had been implanted in her by Cerberus. One thing stood out above all the rest. Shepard trusted him with her life. She knew that, regardless of which memories they were, Garrus was the member of her crew Shepard trusted the most.

She was glad, in a sense, that it had been Garrus who came down to get her. Now they could kill the Cerberus lackeys together.

She sat back, grinning, thinking of ways to make Miranda talk. She had to know if there was someone else like her. Biotics could do such interesting things.

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><p>Garrus glanced over at Shepard, disturbed by the sight of her sitting back with a maniacal grin on her face. She was losing it- no, he corrected himself, she had already lost it. Garrus had no clue what had happened down on Alchera, and he wasn't in the least qualified to figure it out.<p>

He had seen soldiers break before, of course, even at C-Sec they had had their fair share of cops that just could not get the job done. But nothing like this. There had one case that was particularly nasty, and a male human he had under his command had broken at the long hours, the stress, and then the sight of what the serial killer had done to a group of humans in the wards. But the man had simply run off the edge of the platform.

Garrus remembered thinking it was mildly funny, in a darkly humorous sense, because there were safety precautions that would have prevented such a thing from occurring- except they were malfunctioning and there was political red tape to cut through even to get someone down there to fix them. By the time they did get someone down to do so, it was too late for the lieutenant.

Still, suicidal crazy he could somewhat understand. Murderous crazy, since it was against Cerberus, he could even understand that, too. But the psychotic break, the idea that she wasn't Shepard? That was something he just couldn't get a handle on.

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><p>It was when he stepped out of the shuttle that it suddenly occurred to him that he had never warned Joker not to send down a few specific someones with the med squad. With his practiced eye, he saw the men, in position, but their guns were down, and they were clearly not ready to tackle Shepard head-on. And yes, she was here.<p>

Miranda stepped forward out of the group, concern etched across her features.

Garrus laid a finger on his mouth, as he had seen others do, but Miranda ignored him.

"Where is she, Garrus? What the hell is going-"

The biotic blast that hit her took her off her feet and slammed her into the bulkhead, taking one of the medical squad with her. They snapped to attention, bringing their rifles to bear.

Hopefully those things were loaded with tranquilizers.

He turned, trying to calm Shepard down.

She was nowhere to be seen.

The side door of the shuttle was standing open.

He cursed, and whirled around, to see Shepard launch herself through the air at Miranda, just as the Cerberus operative was sitting up, groaning. She saw the incoming Commander, and her eyes widened. She threw up a biotic shield as Shepard fell on her like a missile.

The ensuing concussive wave, as Shepard's biotics met Miranda's, sent everyone off their feet and shattered the shuttle's glass into thousands of pieces.

Garrus' ears were ringing as he groggily pulled himself up off the floor. He was pretty sure his vision had gone double and he had some sort of head injury from where the blast had thrown him into the shuttle's door.

A scream and the snap of a breaking bone brought him back to full consciousness.

Shepard was sitting on Miranda's back, the Cerberus operative's arm bent over backwards. Garrus winced. He was pretty sure human elbows weren't supposed to bend that way.

The medical team was in armor, but not in full armor, and the entire lot of them were still on the ground, moaning. He made his way towards one of them, gambling that Shepard was still in enough of her right mind that she wouldn't attack him.

He was halfway to one of them when she spoke. "Watch the door, Garrus." Her voice was grim.

He responded in the affirmative. Agree with the crazy people. Then shoot them in the back with a tranq dart.

"I'm only going to ask you this once, Lawson. Lie, and you will suffer such pain that this," she shook Miranda's broken arm as the woman moaned, "will seem like a papercut."

She bent forward, her voice becoming even more menacing. "How many clones did you make?"

Garrus reached for the gun, checking to make certain it was loaded.

Miranda's voice was a whimper. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Wrong answer." She dropped her hand down on the back of Miranda's neck, her biotics glowing as she touched the nerve center at the base of the spine.

Miranda screamed again, much higher-pitched and far more desperate than the last time.

Garrus fired, a spread of three tranq darts with enough knockout drugs in them to take down a gorvarn from back home.

Shepard jerked as the darts hit her in the back. Her biotics almost immediately ceased, and she turned to look at him.

The look of betrayal stamped across her features, the utter devastation there, almost caused Garrus to apologize, despite what she had been doing to Miranda.

Then her eyes glazed over and she slumped off of Miranda and fell to the floor.

Garrus dragged himself wearily to the intercom. "Joker? Send down another team. And tell Chakwas she's going to have her hands full in the infirmary."


	4. Chapter 4

_~Author's Note~ Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Mine was away from home unfortunately, but still got to hang out with friends._

_Enjoy the chapter!_

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><p>Miranda was sitting up on the cot, only a few yards separated from the woman who had just been torturing her. There was no other word for it. Her arm was still aching, even through the three shots of the pain killing agent Chakwas had given her, and every time she remembered Shepard's hand touching her neck, she shivered again. Where had she learned such a technique? It had felt like every single nerve ending was on fire.<p>

The doctor was busily moving around the infirmary, her attention focused on Shepard, who was still comatose. After she had knocked out the first med team and taken Miranda down, Garrus had made a "tactical decision" as he called it, to keep her off her feet. For her own good.

But Miranda knew. She knew what had happened. She had made Garrus sit down and tell her everything while Chakwas was setting her arm- another highly unpleasant experience, to say the least- and despite the massive pain that accompanied such a thing, she knew what had set Shepard off. Well. Shepard's clone, at least. She had found Shepard's helmet and Miranda could just guess what was still inside of it. Of all the despicable tricks for the universe to play on her, it had to pick one that was so remotely improbable that she hadn't even considered it. Wilson had told her that they weren't even able to find the Normandy's crash site, so she had assumed that they certainly wouldn't be able to find a single piece of Shepard's body.

She cursed, silently. Had Wilson already begun betraying her at that point? She had told him nothing of what had occurred when Liara dropped off the body, although he did know she had ordered Liara's ship destroyed, so as far as he was concerned, Shepard's body was completely intact. At the time, she had had her suspicions of his loyalty to Cerberus, so when the Illusive Man had instructed her to only tell those people she absolutely needed to in order to begin repairing Shepard's body, she had naturally left Wilson out of it. A good thing, as it turned out. Had he known, the cat would have been out of the bag before her clone even left the base.

Perhaps, he and his team had found the crash site, and simply told her otherwise in an attempt to mislead her. A risky move, to be sure, as had she had the foresight to send another team, his ruse would have been discovered quite easily.

She needed to get out of here. Garrus was running the ship, but she was the second-in-command. A station that would be harder and harder to take back from the turian the longer she remained in here. Regardless of that, the Illusive Man had to know their clone had figured out what was going on. He was not going to be pleased, but they had to contain the situation. They even had a backup plan for this, but first she had to get his help to implement it.

She looked around the room, considering. There would be casualties. But again, it was necessary. She steeled herself for the pain and slipped out of the bed, pushing her way out of the double doors and headed for the communications console.

* * *

><p>Garrus' detective instincts were on full alert. Something smelled ugly. Shepard had mentioned something about clones when she was attacking Miranda, and for the first time, Garrus considered that perhaps she wasn't all that crazy. What if Cerberus hadn't managed to bring Shepard back from the dead? Such a thing should have been impossible, and what if it was? Even for the Illusive Man, there had to be limits to what he could accomplish.<p>

If, in his twisted little mind, he thought the galaxy, or rather, humanity, needed a figurehead, he might give the go-ahead to clone Shepard and pass the clone off as her.

It all fit far too easily for Garrus' peace of mind.

"Whither away, my captain?" Joker saluted him, something he was nearly certain was designed to mock him, as he had never seen Joker salute Shepard.

Garrus gave him his best turian death glare. Unfortunately, it failed to have any effect on the human.

"What is that? Are you trying to intimidate me? It looks like you ate something that disagreed with you."

Garrus sighed. Briefly, he wished he were on a turian ship, things would be so much easier.

His omnitool pinged, and he waved Joker off.

The voice in his earpiece was that of EDI's. There was only one reason why she would be contacting him through here instead of over the ship's intercom. "Officer Vakarian, you asked to be informed if the ship's communication relay was opened. It has been, though I'm afraid my protocols prevent me from telling you who has opened it or who they are contacting."

"That is fine, EDI, I can take it from here."

It had been tricky, getting the AI to report on Cerberus without breaching the safety protocols the Illusive Man had built into the system to prevent just that. But he figured that Miranda's first objective would be to report to her boss, and that conversation could be very interesting indeed. Thus, he had merely requested to be informed via his personal omnitool should anyone use the communications relay. Something a human might find suspicious, but something an AI would simply process, obey, and move on.

He tapped into the bug he had placed in the room.

"- entirely unacceptable. The fact that it knows it is not Shepard is something we cannot tolerate. Miranda, you must terminate it immediately."

That was the Illusive Man, and Garrus didn't need to listen any further to know that all his suspicions had been right.

Miranda replied, "I agree, but I think there might still be a way to salvage the situation. If you could get another clone here, we could do a swap. Perhaps we can get them to believe it was a simple psychotic break that she has now put behind her."

He remembered Shepard- no, Valkyrie's- question, "How many clones did you make?" Apparently the answer was more than just her. Of course it was more than just her, the Illusive Man would always have a backup plan. Or twenty. Garrus shuddered. The thought of multiple Shepards running around, doing Cerberus' bidding... the thought was unconscionable. The next time Valkyrie got her hands on Miranda, he might just sit back and watch. Hell, he might hold her down.

There was a pause as the Illusive Man considered her words. "The other clones... they haven't been successful as of yet. Something about growing them fast enough is causing problems with their mental ability. They come out with the capacity of a six-year old. Apparently this one has broken as well. Kill it, and bring the body back here. Maybe we can do something with it."

Another pause, then, "As you wish. This was still a lot of time and effort wasted, sir."

"Don't think of it as a waste. Think of it as phase one in a far larger and more glorious plan. You know what you must do."

"Yes. I will see to it immediately."

Garrus shut down the bug. "Like hell you will." He took off at full speed for the med bay, rounding the corner and straight into Jacob Taylor.

The collision knocked both of them off their feet. The Cerberus operative sprang up, his gun already out, but he lowered it when he saw it was Garrus. "Hey, what's with the rush, Garrus?"

He had no time to deal with Taylor, and no way of knowing if the man was part of the plot against Shepard. Chances are, he was, but Garrus wasn't going to execute someone because "chances are" they were a traitor.

He brought his forearm around in a brutal sweep and slammed it into the human's forehead, sending him sprawling into the wall. He lingered a brief instant to make certain the man was out cold, and then continued to the med-bay.

As he came up on it, he saw the doors closing behind the form of Miranda Lawson.

He was not going to come this far and be two seconds too late.

He charged across the intervening space and slammed through the med-bay doors.

Lawson was at Shepard's bedside, her hand raised as if to press something by Shepard's head. She whirled at the sound of the doors blowing inwards off their hinges. She was a very intelligent woman. There was only one reason why Garrus Vakarian would have charged in here like that- he believed Shepard to be in danger. And considering she had just had a conversation with the Illusive Man, telling her to terminate the clone... the turian must know. Somehow.

She kept her hands where he could see them and raised her voice to act as if she was shocked at his entrance. "Garrus?! Is something wrong?"

She had extensively researched turians, and she knew that if they believed one of their own was threatened they would act first and assess the consequences later. In the heat of the moment, however, even the best could forget an important detail.

"Not anymore," he growled, and he fired the M3 Argus he always carried. The first shot penetrated her side, the second and third were blocked by her biotic shield that she threw up almost out of instinct. She staggered back against Shepard's bed, one hand over the wound in her side, the other up in front of her, glowing blue with her biotics.

Her mind was racing. She could possibly throw Garrus against something in here hard enough to knock him out, but her cover was blown. She saw Chakwas approaching the infirmary, carrying a few extra medical supplies. The doctor stopped at the sight of the door off of its hinges, and then rushed towards the area.

Miranda braced herself. She would have a split second where Garrus was distracted by Karin coming in through the door.

"What the bloody hell is going on in my infirmary?"

Garrus eyes shifted, for just the briefest of instants, and Miranda struck, sending out a biotic shove that threw him into the wall with enough force that it would have killed a human. It was enough to immobilize him, for a while, and that was all Miranda needed.

Chakwas' eyes flicked over to meet hers, alarm showing in them as she realized what was going on.

"Another step closer, doctor, and she dies." Miranda let the doctor see her own pistol, which she had nestled snugly against the clone's head. It was not enough, for Miranda, to just terminate the clone. Despite her orders, she wanted to bring the clone with her, to show the Illusive Man that she hadn't failed, that they could still use this one. She needed to salvage this mission, because Miranda Lawson never failed a mission.

Her hubris was her undoing.

The pistol in her hands jerked backwards, the trigger squeezing in as some invisible finger pulled it, and the bullet went through her stomach and out of her back. She slid down against the wall, gasping, still desperately trying to think her way out of this situation.

That was when the clone landed in front of her, balancing back on the balls of her feet.

When she spoke, it was with such malice in her voice that Miranda shivered. No one had ever sounded like that.

"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Miranda Lawson. And once that is done, I'm going to track down your boss and I'm going to do the same to him. And every last one of your Cerberus bases and any and all clones that you have made of Shepard. Know that, by dabbling in something you should have left alone, you have destroyed Cerberus. It might as well be you pulling the trigger."

She stared the clone in the eye, unafraid, here at the end. "It was... necessary. Humanity needed... a leader."

"Bullshit. You just wanted to play God."

She shook her head. It had never been about that. "No. Shepard was... the best of us. We needed... her. We still need her."

"You set this whole damn thing up just so you could have Shepard make Cerberus look like a hero. I'm willing to bet that was only the first part of your plan, too."

"It was... necessary. Had to unite... humanity. Reapers... will destroy..." she coughed, blood coming out of her mouth and onto her uniform. "If the galaxy... isn't united... we will all die, Shepard."

"I AM NOT SHEPARD!"

Miranda Lawson looked into the eyes of her creation and felt... pity. She spoke, her voice crystal clear. "You are now. You have to be." She breathed out for the last time, a great gasping sigh. Then her eyes closed, her head slipped down to rest on her chest, and she was gone.

Valkyrie sat back, staring at the corpse, blinking back sudden tears. She stared down at the Cerberus operative, her voice a whisper now. "I am not Shepard." She wasn't. Shepard was a great commander of men and women of all species, someone who had united the galaxy behind her, if only for a short while. She was nothing, she had done nothing. Just because they shared the same DNA didn't mean she was capable of the same things Shepard had been.

Did it?


End file.
